BIZALLION, PIERRE, or PETER, was a French Indian
trader, and one of the most noted in the province. He established himself
at various points, and penetrated the distant wilderness to barter with
the natives for their furs. About the year 1724 he settled down on a farm
in the valley, a short distance east of Coatesville, where he died in
1742. He names eight slaves in his will, and his personal property was
appraised at ú573. His widow, Martha, gave the land, 158 acres (which had
been patented to them in 1740), to her nephew, John Hart, by deed of Dec.
22, 1762.
BINGAMAN, FREDERICK, from Germany, settled in
Chester County, and married a daughter of Garret Brownback, by whom he had
children, 1. John, who went to Virginia; 2. Frederick, who served in the
army of the Revolution in a rifle company whose trimmings were colored
with maple-bark; 3. Garret, who was drafted, but his brother
Frederick went to his stead, having been out before; 4. Mary.
Frederick, Jr., married Elizabeth, daughter of Cassimir
Missimer, of Montgomery County, and resided there for some time. He died
in 1832, and she about a year afterwards; both were buried at Brownback's
church. They had two children, John, born Sept. 23, 1783, and Mary, who
married Jacob Aman.
John married, Feb. 21, 1809, Mary, daughter of Judge
John Ralston, born May 4, 1787, and resided in Coventry. He died Dec. 4,
1825, aged forty-two years, and his widow married Henry Rimby whom she
survives, at the age of ninety-four years. The children of John Bingaman
were Joshua, Eliza, John Ralston, Frederick, Robert, William, and Levi.
LEVI BINGAMAN was born Oct. 21, 1824, in
Coventry township, opposite the house in which he now resides. His father
kept the "Rising Sun Inn," an ancient hostelry of Coventry,
dating back to or beyond the Revolution. Frederick (John's father) also
kept the same inn, and the buildings are now occupied by Levi, their son
and grandson. John kept the inn until Sept. 11, 1817, when, being
converted at meeting, he cut down his sign and quit keeping public-house.
Levi was raised on the farm until his fifteenth year, and attended the
summer schools. He then clerked in Robert Ralston's store in West Vincent
for eight years, after which he was in the mercantile trade for twelve
years where he now lives. He was married, Jan. 24, 1850, to Mary Ann,
daughter of Henry and Margaret (Sheneman) Mosteller, of West Vincent. She
was of a family of eight sons and three daughters, all living and all
married but two. Levi and his wife have had ten children, of whom three
are living, Howard, Samuel, and Levi Arthur.